Automatic fire-alarm



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AUTOMATIG FIRE ALARM.

No. 343,687. Patented June 15, 1886.

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W. J. BAULIEU.

AUTOMATIC FIRE ALARM. No. 343,687. Patented June 16, 1886.

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W. J. BAULIEU.

AUTOMATIC FIRE ALARM.

No. 343,687. Patented June 15,1886.

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UNITED STATES PA1 ENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM J. BAULIEU, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

AUTOMATIC FIRE-ALARM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 343,687, dated June 15,1886.

Application filed November 23, 1885. Serial No. 183,820. (No model.)

T0 on whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WVrLLIAM J. BAULIEU, a citizen of the United States,residing at Bridgeport,in the county of Fairfiel d and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inAutomatic Fire Alarms; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention has for its object to produce automatic mechanism forsounding an alarm when the temperature of a room shall be suddenlyraised.

The gist of my invention lies in utilizing the increase in volume causedby the expansion of air or the vaporization of sulphuric ether or anyequivalent chemical that will readily vaporize when the temperature ofthe room is raised above a certain degree, which may be regulated byadjustment. The device will work, if desired, without the use of anychemicals, the expansion of the air in the chamber being suflicient tooperate it when the temperature of the room shall have been sufficientlyraised. The use of ether or an equivalent chemical is preferred,however, as its action is quicker than that of air. In order toaccomplish these results-to produce, in brief, an automatic alarm thatshall be simple and economical in construction and practicallyimpossible to get out of orderl have devised the novel construction, ofwhich the following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is a specification, similar letters denoting the same parts inall the figures of the drawings.

Figure 1 is a central section illustrating one form of carrying myinvention into practice. Fig. 2 is a plan view corresponding therewith;Fig. 3, a modified form of the construction illustrated in Fig. 1; Fig.4, a section of the etherchamber in another modified form; Fig. 5, asection of the remaining portion of the second modified form, and Fig. 6an inverted plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 5, the gong beingremoved.

Turning now to Figs. 1 and 2, A represents the case, and B the covertherefor. The case may be attached to the wall in the horizontalposition or at any desired angle, the cover lying next to the wall, orwhatever article it may be attached to. C indicates an air-tightchamber, the outer wall, C, of which is made of metal, and is curvedaway from the case, as clearly shown in Fig. 1; and D indicates anotherchamber separated from chamber C by wall D. Eis a tube leading intochamber D from the outside to admit external air, in order that thetemperature in said chamber may be the same as that of the room. \Vithinchamber D is an expansible bag, F, made of light elastic metal, andair-tight, except that it is connected with chamber C by means of apipe, F. G indicates binding-posts in the case which are connected withthe positive and negative poles of a battery. (Not shown.) H representsa lever, which rests upon the bag, one end of said lever being pivotedto the case, and the other end insulated, as at H, by the attachment ofa piece of hard rubber or similar non-conducting substance. K is a leverpivoted to the case at a right angle to lever H, and insulated, as at K.This lever is supported by lever H, but is only in contact with theinsulated portion thereof. K is a spring secured to the cover, whichrests up on lever K, serving to hold it at its normal position, nomatter in what position the case may be placed. A wire, G, from one ofthe binding-posts connects with this spring. L is a bell-crank leverpivoted to the case Opposite to lever K. The ends of these two leverslap by each other, but are not ordinarily in contact. Lever L isinsulated, as at L, and is ordinarily provided near its end with acontact-point, L". The lower arm of this lever is additionallyinsulated, as at L by setting a piece of hard rubber, or any suitablepiece of non-conducting substance, into the arm, as is indicated in Fig.l. M is a set-screw, which passes through the case,and whose inner endbears against the insulated part of the downwardly-proj ecting arm,forthe purpose of changing the adjustment of the lever, as will be morefully explained. L is a spring secured to the cover similarly to springK A wire, G, leading to the. other bindingpost, connects with thisspring, the action of thespring being to hold lever L to its normalposition. \Vhen thumbscrew M is turnedin, it acts against the power ofthis spring.

As stated above, the gist of my invention IOO [ ever, saturate kernelsof rice in ether and place a few of the kernels in the bottom of thechamber, as indicated at N. In practice I have found two pennyweights ofthe saturated kernels to produce perfectly satisfactory results.

I In Fig. 1 the parts are shown at their normal position-that is, thecircuit is broken. The operation is as follows: The effect of a suddenincrease of temperature in a room is to heat the outer wall, 0,sufliciently to ex- :0 pand the air or to vaporize more or less of theand expanding that.

o to its normal position.

chemical in chamber 0. The vapor of course passes instantly to bag F andexpands it, thus raising lever H, which in turn raises lever K, bringingthe end of the latter in contact with lever L, thus closing the circuit,the current passing from binding-post to bindingpost through wiresG,lever's K and L, and springs K and L". The distance between the tips,of levers K and L, wh'n in their normal position, may be readily changedby turning set screw M either in or out, as may .be necessary. It willof course be seen that by careful adj ustment of lever L the alarm maybe caused to sound Whenever the temperature of the room shall have beenraised to a predetermined point.

I have not shown special electric ringing mechanism, as I contemplateusing my automatic mechanism in connection with any ordinaryelectric-bell mechanism and have moreover illustrated ringing mechanismin Figs. 5 and 6.

In the modified form illustrated in Fig. 3, bag F and levers H, K, and Lare dispensed with. Wall D is corrugated sufifiiciently to provide forthe expansion of said chamber when vaporization of the chemical takesplace, the vapor causing the chamber itself to expand, instead ofpassing into a separate bag It will of course be understood that in thisform wall D must be made of light elastic metal, similar to that ofwhich the bag is made. The set-screw M passes through the cover, andspring L rests upon the top of the screw and connects directly with thebinding-post; or a wire may be used, as in the other form. SpringKconnects With the other binding-post and rests upon the top of wall D,acting to hold it down When the heat in the The amount of vaporizationnecessary to insure contact is regulated by the screw M, as before.- Inthe other modification (see Figs. 4, 5, and 6) I dispense with theelectric connection and cause the alarm to be sounded by the directaction of the ether vaporthat is to say, the expansion of bag F movescertain levers, which in turn start the bell to ringing.

Turning now to Fig. 4, it will be seen that 'pipe F passes directly outthrough the cover.

Fig. 4 is drawn to the same scale as Figs. 1, 2, and 3; but in Figs. 5and 6 the scale has been reduced one-half.

Fig. 5 is a section, and Fig. 6 an inverted plan view, the gong beingremoved, of ringing mechanism, bag F, and the intermediate connectingmechanism. Bag F is connected by means of pipe F to chamber 0, (seeFig.4,) the same as in the other form, it being of course understood thatthe parts illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 may be at any reasonable distancefrom the chamber. In this form, as shown, pipe F enters the bag fromabove instead of from below. This, however, is a matter of noconsequence whatever, as l contemplate placing-the parts in anyconvenient positionthat is, either horizontally, vertically, or at anyintermediate angle. In this form the insulation of the levers is ofcourse not necessary. Any marked increasein temperature causes bag F toexpand, moving levers H and K, the same as in the other form. Lever K issupported by a post, O, whose surface is parallel to the plane ofmovement of the lever, which is free to move over the face'thereof.

Any ordinary style of ringing mechanism may be used in connection withmy invention. I have illustrated a simple form of mechanism which I havefound perfectly satisfactory in practice. P is the gong, P the clapper,P the spring, P the winding-post, and P the ratchet. Q is a leverpivoted to a post, Q', the outer end of which engages the ratchet, as isclearly shown in Fig. 6. At the other end of this lever is pivoted anarm, Q, which swings in the same plane as lever K.- As

shown in Fig. 5, the rear end of this arm laps by the end of lever K,and is supported by post 0. R is the central stud which supports thegong. R is a spring attached to this stud, the outer end of which bearsagainst arm Q", holding it upon post 0. In use spring I? requires to bewound up by a key, in the usual manner. Lever K is held in properposition by spring K the same as in the other form. Arm Q is heldagainst lever K by a spring, Q pivoted either to said arm or to thelever itself. When the temperature of the room in which chamber 0 islocated is raised, bag F is expanded, raising leversH and K, theultimate action of which is to force arm Q off from post 0. It should beunderstood that arm Q will move freely in the same plane with lever Kwithout disturbing lever Q in the slightest. As soon, however, as thearm is forced off from the post, spring R, acting in the plane in whichlever Q swings, forces said lever out of engagement with the ratchet,thus setting the ringing mechanism into operation.

I do not of course desire to limit myself to the exact details ofconstruction shown and described, as it is obvious that the details maybe varied to suit different applications of my invention withoutdeparting in the slightest from the spirit thereof.

In practice I can use the form in which electric connections are notshown in connection with a district-telegraph system, by placing ratchet1? upon the crank-shaft of an ordinary alarm box, no changes whatever inthe mechanism being required.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim- 1. Chamber C,containing an easily-vaporized chemical, the expansible bag, and a pipeconnecting said chamber and bag, in combination with an alarm-insulatedlever, H, resting on said bag, insulated lever K, resting across leverH, and an insulated lever, L, having electric connections extending tosaid alarm, all arranged substantially as shown, whereby the expansionof said bag causes lever K to come in contact with lever L, thuscompleting the circuit.

2. Chamber C, the bag, and pipe F, in combination with levers K and L,the latter having arm L springs K and L, an alarm, electric connectionsoperated by said bag, and a set-screw, whereby the increaseintemperature required to sound the alarm may be regulated.

3. Chambers C and D and expansible bag F, located in chamber D, incombination with a pipe connecting the bag with the chamber C, and atube for admitting external air to chamber D, as and for the purpose setforth.

4. An air-tight chamber and a bag connected therewith, in combinationwith pivoted lever K and bell-crank le'ver L, both insulated, as shown,springs for holding said levers in position, electric connections, and asetscrew bearing against one arm of the bell-crank lever, whereby saidlever is adjusted to regulate the temperature at which the alarm willsound.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM J. BAULIEU.

